Raw files

I've taken the plunge and moved from film to digital. Understand to get the best results I should shoot in Raw. Tried just a couple of exposures and was unable to downlod. Using k10D, PEF format and PS7. Am I doing something wrong or do I need Raw converter and if I do, how do I use it?
Any advice, after a lifetime, it seems, of film, would be welcome. Really am a complete novice with this medium.

What OS are you using and are you using a card reader or the USB lead and Camera?

What card and card reader are you using - if it it an SDHC card then the reader may not be able to cope with it. In which case try connecting the camera to the computer directly.
Have you been able to download jpegs?


PSE 7 comes with Adobe Camera RAW converter, not the best maybe but a good starting point. If you are using windows XP or Vista you should get a window asking what you want to use to download the photo - one of them should be PSE7, in which case just follow the prompts on the screen. To process a RAW photo that is in Organiser click on Full Edit to open the editor and Camera RAW will open automatically.
I recommend that you disable Adobe Photo Downloader - it can be a right pain.

Gwyn,
I think he's using Photoshop 7.

Adobe Camera Raw 3.7 is the ealiest version that support the pentax K10D but that one can't be installed on photoshop 7, it doesn't even support DNG.

In that case he needs to download the appropriate update to read the PEF files in Photoshop.

Sorry, guys. I'm using Photoshop 7, Windows XP, card reader and SDHCcards. Can load JPEGs without any problem. I'm told I can use Picasa to download PEF files but the real problem is that I don't know the correct action to take once I get them into the computer to convert them to Tiff or Jpeg. Still just playing at digital.

David ,You will need to download the latest Adobe camera raw plug-in for your Photoshop Elements 7.It can be found here on adobe website.
I hope installing this camera raw version 5.3 would solve the problem.

Sorry for the long comment but I thought this instructions would be helpful while installing this plug in in your photoshop 7.


Photoshop Elements:
Windows®:
NOTE: You must follow all of the new instructions in order to successfully install the Camera Raw Plug-in
for Photoshop Elements.
1. Exit Photoshop Elements.
2. Open the download file and double-click CameraProfiles.exe and follow the on-screen instructions.
3. Double-click Local Disk (C .
4. Navigate to location designated by your version of Photoshop Elements:
a. Program Files/Adobe/Photoshop Elements 6.0/Plug-Ins/File Formats

b. Program Files/Adobe/Photoshop Elements 7.0/Plug-Ins/File Formats
5. Move the existing Camera Raw.8bi plug-in to another location (for example, a new folder on your
desktop). Ensure you keep this version in case you need to revert back.
6. Copy the Camera Raw plug-in, Camera Raw.8bi, from the download into the same folder as Step 4.
7. Launch Photoshop Elements.

Hope this would help.

regards

Sorry Vikram, photoshop 7 is something completely differend then photoshop elements 7, he can't use it.

Stefan, I could not find photoshop 7 but there is Photoshop elements 7 and premiere elements 7 here on adobe product webpage
may be you can point me where 'photoshop 7' is on the adobe

This a DNG converter, it will convert PEF to DNG. link
DNG is also a camera RAW but because the computer compress them it's smaller and more program support it.
Here is some more data what software support it link

More then this I can't help you, photoshop 7 is just too outdated

It's too outdated (March 2002) but here are all the downloads link
Adobe Camera Raw 3.7 and up have the support for the K10D so you need atleast Photoshop CS2

In my view, It would be easier to set the camera to shoot straight in DNG raw than shooting in PEF raw and converting it to DNG raw on computer.

We already had that discusion here on the forum 3 days ago.
The thing is that DNG that the camera make is hardly compressed, you can make twice as much photos with PEF and if you use the computer to convert them once again you end up with a small file.

These are some numbers with the K10D, all the same photo.
PEF = 8,15 MB
DNG = 16,1 MB

Converted with Adobe Lightroom 2.2
PEF > DNG = 6,94 MB
DNG > DNG = 7,14 MB

you see the benefits of shooting in PEF and you convert them in to DNG on the pc, that way you're quite sure you can open them over 10 years.